scrubba,
Save us from such wonderful design features, please! The issue is that the hydraulics are too weak to keep the blades from arguing with you. As Paco relates, the incidence of stall can occur at relatively low maneuver states.
You have been lucky that the "transparency" occurred where the recovery is simple. The problem is that the mild stick wiggles you have felt are nothing compared to what could be dealt to you in other circumstances. Should the stick simply whip around the cockpit and let the aircraft suddenly take over, you would probably not declare that a design feature! The 365 family does that, and the maneuver ends when the aircraft finally runs out of airspeed, so control can be regained. Should the aircraft find some comfortable dirt or rock to nestle into before it lets you become PIC again, the flight might come to a rapid halt, thanks to that handy-dandy design feature you like so much.
I hate to agree with Lu (and I think hard about it, believe me!) but let's all push for power steering that works all the time, and helos that don't stall too early.
I hear the same apology for LTE in this group ("crummy pilots deserve to be punished"), and I ask us all to please seek helos that don't require budding Astronauts to keep them safe. The helicopter mission is hard enough, with the demands for extra judgement, fine motor skills and great airmanship to keep the outside world from hurting us and our machines. Let us at least ask our machines to be our partners, and not our adversaries, in the quest for better safety. If our safety record can't be raised, we might always be a mere sidelight in the world of aviation.
Paco, that incidence illustrates what I was talking about above in this thread - that stall is stall, it is not g stall or speed stall. The August day was warm, I'll bet, and the aircraft was heavy, and that turn crossed the stall line by a bit.
[ 15 December 2001: Message edited by: Nick Lappos ]